Freddy Shepherd: no winners in Keegangate. Although Hughton might get £5m.

Posted on October 4th, 2009 | 26 Comments |

Foghorn Leghorn
Foghorn Leghorn
Former Newcastle United owner Freddy Shepherd has been having his say on Keegangate, as is his wont in such situations these days, and of course that called for a comparison with his time at Newcastle and how things were so much better back then.

Freddy said:

“There are no winners [I say no winners, you listening to me boy] in this case. There are only losers – the club and its fans. Kevin Keegan and Mike Ashley are just passing through – it is the institution of Newcastle United that is damaged by this episode.

“During my time at Newcastle, when a manager left we always managed to sort it out amicably and agree on a settlement.

“And when Ruud Gullit left he agreed to waive all his rights to compensation. Gullit is the most honourable man I have ever met in football.

“Things weren’t going well and he came to me and told me he had lost the fans. He told me he wanted to go quietly and didn’t want a penny paid into his bank account. There aren’t many men of that calibre in the game. He showed he had true class and integrity [and I aint no chickenhawk, chickenhawk that is].”

If press reports are to be believed though, Chris Hughton will benefit from the fact that the payout to be made by the club is only £2m. Apparently Ashley had set aside £8m to pay off Keegan and Hughton will now get £5m of that to spend on players in January.

The Mirror, on whose esteemed authority I’m basing this report, believes Barry Moat’s £80m bid for the club will be ratified this week, although their ‘sources’ can’t be too reliable because the next sentence begins with “But even if it isn’t …” and goes on to suggest that if the deal isn’t ratified Mike Ashley is prepared to hand over £5m in transfer funds.

The Mirror claims that Ashley and Moat are both agreed that strategic strengthening of the squad is the way to go, ensuring that we can bounce straight back to the Premier League at the end of the season.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

26 Responses

  1. Morning Hugh
    It seems that the Daily Mirror are making it up as usual. How can Ashley provide Hughton with a transfer kitty in January if he is selling the club this week and Hughton clearly wouldn’t be the manager? Load of tosh.
    Regarding Fat Fred’s comments, didn’t someone mention on here a few days ago that Sir Bobby sued the club after he was dismissed? I don’t know if that’s true but I’m sure someone will enlighten me?

  2. Morning Deb, as far as I remember, SBR didn’t actually sue but there was some ‘hassle’ in coming to an agreement about his compensation, but they eventually did. Someone with a better memory than me can probably elaborate.

  3. Fat Freddie has no right to comment on anything NUFC. He milked the club dry at every opertunity to line his own pocket.The man who sacked SBR and replaced him with a younger look a like (Araldyce)should just stay quiet. We’ve had enought of smiling assasians at this club.

  6. geordie deb says:
    October 4, 2009 at 9:45 am

    “Regarding Fat Fred’s comments, didn’t someone mention on here a few days ago that Sir Bobby sued the club after he was dismissed?”

    He got a £2.1 million settlement, Deb. It wasn’t the same as Keegangate at all. Robson was sacked and Satan knew that he’s have to pay, so their respective solicitors thrashed out a deal. Bobby was only on a rolling contract and received much less than Keegan.

    From the BBC:

    from BBC Sport, 4 April, 2005

    “Sir Bobby Robson has reached a settlement “in principle” with Newcastle over his final pay-off after his sacking as manager in August 2004.

    The 72-year-old former England boss has been receiving his basic salary from the club each month since his departure from the Tyneside outfit.

    Robson’s contract expired in June 2006, prior to him being dismissed.

    The club could have stopped paying him if he had taken up another post following his exit.

    Details of Robson’s settlement come as Newcastle announce a profit of £5.1m in the six months leading up to January this year. The figure is an increase of £4.5m from the previous six months but chairman Freddy Shepherd said it would have been more had it not been for Robson’s sacking.

    “I think the most significant figure is the £2.1m we have paid out as a result of the management change,” Shepherd said. “If that had not been in there, we would have been under the 50 per cent wages-to-turnover ratio.”

    From “Farewell but not goodbye”

    Not for one second did I entertain the possibility that the gallows were being erected for me up at the old stadium. In retrospect, there was one disquieting aspect of the chairman’s summons. Why had Russell Cushing called Tony to get him to ring me? That was odd. The chief operating officer didn’t have the courtesy to ring me himself to tell me the chairman wanted to see me? I assumed it was merely a failure of manners, and pulled into the club car park in a businesslike frame of mind. I strode into Freddy Shepherd’s office to find Joy, his secretary, the chairman and Russell Cushing, which again was somewhat strange, given that it was a bank holiday. Even then, I was not apprehensive as I took my seat.

    “Good morning, chairman,” I said, opening the batting. “Any thoughts about the centre-half?”

    Freddy Shepherd’s face turned red. Then he uttered a single sentence.

    “I’m relieving you of your position.”

    Silence descended. No words could come.

    “Why?” I said at last.

    “Results.”

    “Results? We’ve got another sixty games to go, chairman.” He handed me a letter.

    “So it’s fait accompli, is it?”

    More silence. My mind was reeling. Slowly, I recovered some semblance of poise. I asked him straight, “What are we going to do about my contract?”

    “Well, we’ll have to honour it.” That phrase struck me hard. Not “will” honour it, but “will have to” honour it. I didn’t like his choice of words one bit. He told me to get in touch with my solicitors.

  8. batty says:
    October 4, 2009 at 2:22 pm

    “aye wot a discrace the fat c@nt him and ashly should be brothers”

    I thought you loved wor Freddy, batty. :-)

  9. Thanks Worky. Interesting that it appears it still took Sir Bobby 8 months to get his settlement package sorted out so Fat Fred hardly behaved honourably after the sacking of Sir Bobby.

  10. worky you know me if it windes sum 1 up ile do it but hes as bad as ashley well nearly lol

  12. Nice to see Mr Shepherd hasnt lost his ability to talk utter rubbish. Sir Bobby Robson had to threaten the club with legal action to get his contract payed up in full because Freddie Shepherd tried to impose a gagging order on Robson. Shepherd didnt want the truth coming out about the working conditions Robson was being forced to work under. He was having first team players bought and sold from him without any consultation and then when confronting Shepherd he was blatantly lied to. It was a running joke at the club at the time that Robson used to refer to Shepherds friend and disgraced agent, Paul Stretford (currently banned from working as a players agent), as the clubs chief scout.
    It just shows the sheer stuidity and ignorance of Shepherd to comment on a legal ruling when 3 years earlier Sir Bobby Robson had already published in his book that Shepherd was doing the same things to him as what Ashley has just had his knuckles wrapped for doing to Keegan.

  15. Judging by your expression, there’s a funny smell Fred?

    That’ll be the odour off what you were chatting.

  16. bowburn – i enjoy reading articles by your mate excelsior – will he be writing again or has worky kicked him into touch ?.

  17. I see Dnis Wise has been on Sky saying KK was offered more than £2m to settle out of court as it were.

    Gets more ridiculous every day.

    Oh and he said he thinks Ashley will keep the club and sell it when were in the PL.

  18. Stuart79 says:
    October 4, 2009 at 6:39 pm

    “I see Dnis Wise has been on Sky saying KK was offered more than £2m to settle out of court as it were.”

    If Dirty Den is right, Stuart, it would show that Keegan hasn’t lost his touch for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Miaowww!

  19. Or that he simply refused to be bought out and was suitably justified by the subsequent verdict by the panel of arbitration. Keegan won, accept it, and let’s all move on.

    As for that corpulent swine, given the state he left this club in and the shoddy way he treated Sir Bobby Robson, he really should keep his mouth well and truly shut on all things NUFC-related.

  20. If he would have settled out of court we wouldn’t know the goings on at the club.

    He might have just wanted all the dirty washing hung out to dry for all to see.

  21. Or that he simply refused to be bought out and was suitably justified by the subsequent verdict by the panel of arbitration. Keegan won, accept it, and let’s all move on.

    As for that corpulent swine, given the state he left this club in and the shoddy way he treated Sir Bobby Robson, he really should keep his mouth well and truly shut on all things NUFC-related.

    what about the way we treated sir bobby

  22. We? You? I? Can only give you my take on it, as one of the 5,000 who remained and clapped off the team after the Wolves game. I also recall the booing, which was wholly reserved for the players. If you were there, you’d know that of course…

  23. summerof69 says:
    October 4, 2009 at 8:28 pm

    “what about the way we treated sir bobby”

    69, do you mean when he was sacked from Newcastle? Or when he dropped Keegan from the England team much earlier?

  24. what about the way we treated sir bobby”

    69, do you mean when he was sacked from Newcastle? Or when he dropped Keegan from the England team much earlier?

    i mean when we booed him for what i think was finishing 5th

  26. i am not a stikler but dont any newcastle fan see that we r getting fuk….ed recently isnt someone going to say something anythin pls